Call for artists in Hong Kong, China & the Middle East

Intermodal Flow: Ship placement, exhibition & public programme

We are currently looking for two artists (from China and the Middle East) who would like to join Delta Arts artist Emma Smith on a 28-day container ship passage from Hong Kong to Southampton in 2015.

The placements are part of Intermodal Flow, our project on the containerised maritime trade routes that represent the hidden plumbing of globalisation. Our idea is to develop Intermodal Flow as a mobile platform for artist exchange using passenger places available on container ships. Inspired in part by the Artist Placement Group in the 1960s, our vision is a combination of a site-specific residency, a collective-workshop, and an international artists’ think tank. As such there is scope for collective dialogue and collaboration as well as individual research and practice.

Booking Fast: The Ship of Empty Boxes

Still from The Forgotten Space, Allan Sekula & Noël Burch, 2010

THE SHIP OF EMPTY BOXES: Responses to Containerised Global Trade 
(including 6pm screening of The Forgotten Space by Allan Sekula & Noël Burch)

Saturday, 18 January 2014, 10:30am-8pm, Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image, Birkbeck Cinema, 43 Gordon

Square, WC1H 0PD London

Free event

UPDATE: Birkbeck tell us our symposium is now fully-booked on Eventbrite, but it is worth getting on the waiting list as places may well become available. Details on their website: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/events-calendar/the-ship-of-empty-boxes-responses-to-containerised-global-trade

The Ship of Empty Boxes: Symposium & Screening

Still from The Forgotten Space, Allan Sekula & Noël Burch, 2010

THE SHIP OF EMPTY BOXES: Responses to Containerised Global Trade 
(including 6pm screening of The Forgotten Space by Allan Sekula & Noël Burch)

Saturday, 18 January 2014, 10:30am-8pm, Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image, Birkbeck Cinema, 43 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PD London

Free event. Please book via Eventbrite

Delta Arts is co-organising this event with Dr Sophie Hope (Department of Film, Media and Cultural Studies, Birkbeck and Delta Arts Advisory Panel member), and Dr Alex Colas (Department of Politics, Birkbeck).

The complex maritime routes of containerised trade are perhaps the hidden plumbing of globalisation. Common estimates suggest about 90% of the non-bulk cargo being transported worldwide is moved via container shipping. The economic, social and environmental consequences affect many lives around the world. This one-day symposium brings together the disciplines of art, anthropology, international relations, law and geography to explore the significance of the shipping container, maritime trade and labour conditions in the context of globalisation.

The symposium aims to identify different approaches and understandings of containerised global trade in order to allow overlaps between legal, social, cultural and environmental narratives to occur. The materiality of the container, the labour conditions of those who service the industry, and corporations’ diligent use of multiple legal jurisdictions will be considered. Through presentations, screenings and discussion we will investigate further the impact that the global standardisation of the twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) has had on human and non-human existence and how in turn it might be re-imagined and re-shaped.

The one day symposium includes contributions from artist Simon Faithfull, Dr Douglas Guilfoyle (Reader in Law, University College London), Professor Philip Steinberg (Professor of Political Geography, Durham University), Dr Olivia Swift (economic anthropologist who specialises in seafarer welfare) and will include a screening of The Forgotten Space, by Allan Sekula & Noël Burch.

 The symposium draws on and aims to develop current research into the sea, containerisation and globalisation being carried out by the organisers of the event: Dr Sophie Hope (Department of Film, Media and Cultural Studies, Birkbeck), Dr Alex Colas (Department of Politics, Birkbeck) and not-for-profit arts collective Delta Arts (Amy Lloyd, Curator, Educator, Emma Smith, Artist, and Oliver Sumner, Curator & Learning Specialist).

The Ship of Empty Boxes is supported by the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image and Delta Arts.

Container Ships

Ship in the Solent (Image: Oliver Sumner)

We have started a new blog, as an offshoot of this main Delta Arts blog, to collect references on the subject of containerised maritime trade. Have a look at http://intermodalflow.wordpress.com/

Delta Arts members have been researching material on this subject from interdisciplinary perspectives, including geography, law, international relations, economics, politics, and anthropology, as well as cultural references in art, film, and literature. For some time we have been exploring the idea of placing artists on a container ship passage between the UK and China, a project we have called Intermodal Flow.

Our idea is to develop Intermodal Flow as a mobile platform for artist exchange using passenger places available on container ships. Our vision is a combination of a site-specific residency, a collective-workshop, and an international artists’ think tank. It follows on from our experience of international artist fellowships in our 2010 project Golden Threads. Further updates on Intermodal Flow will be posted here.

PLAYAWAY Video

Somerville Adventure Playground visit to Somerstown Adventure Playground as part of PLAYAWAY, August 2013 (Image: Abigail Gilchrist)

PLAYAWAY can now be viewed HERE.

PLAYAWAY is Delta Arts’ recent project with two adventure playgrounds in Portsmouth and South London. We invited filmmaker Hannah Blackmore and artist Abigail Gilchrist to work at Somerstown Adventure Playground on Portsmouth’s Somerstown estate and Somerville Adventure Playground in New Cross. They used a range of cameras, including miniature head-cams, to explore play with the children, and to find out how the two communities value their adventure playgrounds. We learnt about the issues they share and those specific to each context. We were particularly interested in the specific point of view of the children, using play and video to communicate.

The film was screened at both adventure playgrounds in late October and presented in a soapbox session at the 2013 engage International Conference in Birmingham on 7 November 2013. We are now looking for other venues to show the film, and are researching other ways to develop the project.

PLAYAWAY: Portsmouth & London Screenings

PLAYAWAY – Visit to Somerville Adventure Playground, July 2013 (Image: Abigail Gilchrist)

 

Tuesday 29 October, 3-5pm, at Somerstown Adventure Playground, Waterloo St, PORTSMOUTH PO5 4HS

Wednesday 30 October, 3-5pm, at Somerville Adventure Playground, Queens Rd, LONDON SE14

Join us for one of the premier screenings of PLAYAWAY: a film by Hannah Blackmore & Abigail Gilchrist, made with the help of children, staff, volunteers and families at two adventure playgrounds.

From June to September 2013 Delta Arts ran an exchange between two very different adventure playgrounds in Portsmouth and London. Hannah Blackmore and Abigail Gilchrist worked at Somerstown Adventure Playground on Portsmouth’s Somerstown estate, and Somerville Adventure Playground in New Cross.

Hannah and Abigail used a range of cameras, including miniature head-cams, to explore play with the children, and to find out how the communities value their adventure playgrounds. Delta Arts members Amy Lloyd and Oliver Sumner managed the project and supported the sessions, including coach visits between the two playgrounds.

A Delta Arts project supported by the National Lottery through the Big Lottery Fund.

Play – from a child’s view

Using head-cams at Somerville Adventure Playground, Sep 2013 (Image: Hannah Blackmore)

Abigail Gilchrist and Hannah Blackmore are back at the Adventure Playgrounds after a short break from our PLAYAWAY project.

The head-cams are in high demand, and the children are enjoying experimenting with their movement around the playground while they are recording. When they are playing with each other the children sometimes forget about the camera, but it can sometimes be the thing that brings them together. The cameras are clearly becoming part of the children’s play, as well as a way of sharing how they play.

With only a few sessions left we are talking about our ideas for the edit of the film and are looking forward to the screenings at Somerstown Adventure Playground in Portsmouth (29 October 2013), and Somerville Adventure Playground in London (30 October 2013).

An Architecture of Play – Nils Norman

‘An architecture of play: a survey of London’s adventure playgrounds’, Nils Norman, Four Corners Books, 2003.

This small book by the artist Nils Norman greatly inspired our interest in adventure play.

‘An architecture of play’ records 59 adventure playgrounds in London with texts, photographs and drawings. Many of the playgrounds mentioned were first established in the early 1970’s, including Somerville Adventure Playground where we are currently working. Nils Norman’s introduction is followed by two short texts: ‘Towards a history of adventure playgrounds 1931-2000’ by Keith Cranwell, and ‘The vernacular of play’ by Paul Claydon. In the book Nils Norman describes London’s early adventure playgrounds as, ‘…embodying “the spirit of adventure play”, a phrase that evokes a creative, anarchic, children-led playscape’.

Day-trip to Somerville Adventure Playground

Somerstown Adventure Playground day-trip to Somerville Adventure Playground, July 2013 (Image: Delta Arts)

Today we took our group of children and playworkers from Somerstown Adventure Playground in Portsmouth to visit Somerville Adventure Playground in London.

They were welcomed by children, young people, families and staff at Somerville as a continuation of our PLAYAWAY project. It was a chance to explore the other playground, make new friends and learn about how the two parks are run. We enjoyed a barbeque, experimented with a head cam, and tried out some fun activities designed to map the park and share reactions. Somerville will make a reciprocal visit to Portsmouth in August. PLAYAWAY is supported by the Big Lottery Fund.

 

 

 

 

 

PLAYAWAY: A video project about play

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Thanks to a grant from the Big Lottery Fund, Delta Arts is running an exchange between two very different adventure playgrounds in Portsmouth and London.

We have asked Abigail Gilchrist and Hannah Blackmore to run a series of sessions at Somerstown Adventure Playground on Portsmouth’s Somerstown estate and Somerville Adventure Playground in New Cross. Abigail and Hannah are using a range of cameras, including a miniature head-cam, to explore play with the children, and to find out how the communities value their adventure playgrounds. Delta Arts members Amy Lloyd and Oliver Sumner are managing the project and supporting the sessions. We are all getting to know the children, families, volunteers and playworkers at the two sites, and looking forward to bringing them together with a coach visit to each playground in the next few weeks. The resulting film will be screened in London and Portsmouth later in the year.

Landing Place: the local in the international – engage International Conference 2012 Cardiff

Beirut: Golden Threads

engage International Conference 2012
Venues across Cardiff
6 & 7 November, fringe events on 5 November

Next week Oliver Sumner and Samar Maakaron will be representing Delta Arts at the engage conference in Cardiff. They will present an insight into Delta Arts’ new book on the Golden Threads series of artist-to-artist research fellowships. Golden Threads explored the social role for artists in Beirut, Copenhagen and London. It set out to challenge artists’ practices by placing the socially local concerns that informed them into different cultural contexts internationally. The resulting book records the collective discourse that took place between the artists, including the local concerns of social / participatory practices and the role of self-organised international networks.

A Double Book Launch yesterday at The Showroom, London

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We had an excellent evening at The Showroom yesterday, where we launched our Golden Threads book alongside Andrea Francke’s Invisible Spaces of Parenthood manual. The event began in The Showroom’s current exhibition The Grand Domestic Revolution GOES ON, and was interrupted by an interactive performance by Golden Threads fellowship artists Townley and Bradby. Brooms fitted with bicycle bells (in adult and child sizes) swept the guests upstairs for some Lebanese zaatar, a drink and a short Golden Threads discussion. Lawrence Bradby of Townley and Bradby talked about being an artist and parent, the visibility of children and parents in public space, and experiences of meeting artist families in Denmark through Golden Threads.

Launch of our Golden Threads book at the Showroom, London

Golden Threads (English edition)
Price: £4.95 plus p+p

Double Book Launch
24 October, 6.30–8.30pm

The Showroom
               63 Penfold Street 
London NW8 8PQ

We are looking forward to the launch of our new Golden Threads publication at the Showroom, alongside Andrea Francke’s Invisible Spaces of Parenthood manual during the Grand Domestic Revolution GOES ON.

The book, available in English and Arabic editions, relates to our 2010 Golden Threads fellowships between the UK, Lebanon and Denmark. It looks back on the practice-led research and collective discourse recorded during the four peer-to-peer fellowships.

Artists Hatem Imam, Karen Land Hansen, Emma Smith, and the duo Townley and Bradby researched the varying conditions for artists engaged in social and artist-educator practice in each location. The book includes a dialogue between Emma Smith and Oliver Sumner, contributions from the artists, quotes, project information and images.

Golden Threads was a collaboration between Delta Arts members, invited fellows and hosts: Marwa Arsanios and Mirene Arsanios (Beirut), Karen Land Hansen (Copenhagen), Hatem Imam (Beirut), Lars Mathisen (Copenhagen), Emma Smith (London), Oliver Sumner (Portsmouth), and the artist duo Townley and Bradby (Norwich). We received practical support and advice from Gasworks Gallery (London), SAIR (Sølyst, DK), 98weeks Research Project / Project Space (Beirut), and help from many organisations in each location. Golden Threads was supported by Arts Council England and the Danish Arts Council Committee for Visual Arts.

Golden Threads, Pub. Delta Arts, Eds. Emma Smith & Oliver Sumner,

Price £4.95 plus p+p

A5, 32 Pages, Cover: Colour, Interior: B+W

English edition: ISBN 978-0-9573438-0-1,

Litho print, available from Delta Arts

Arabic edition: ISBN 978-0-9573438-1-8,

Print on Demand, available soon via AND Publishing

number82

Thank you to number82 in Deptford for hosting Delta Arts’ awayday. Members of Delta Arts met in the space yesterday to plan our future programme.

Somerstown Postcards

‘Craig aka Crumpet, Somerstown Adventure Park’, Abi Gilchrist, 2011

‘Tina’s Coffee Morning, St Peter’s Church’, Abi Gilchrist, 2011

‘Margaret’s Window, Ladywood House’, Abi Gilchrist, 2011

Our series of 5 postcards from ‘A Welcome To Those Who Come’ are now available. The images were produced by Abigail Gilchrist with local volunteers in the Somerstown area of Portsmouth. We gathered written and photographic documentation over a number of meetings with 5 volunteers about their lives and their community. We would like to thank Barry, Craig, Ismail, Margaret and Tine for taking part. ‘A Welcome To Those Who Come’ is a Delta Arts project in partnership with aspex. Supported by Grassroots.

A Welcome To Those Who Come

View from our studio at Omega Centre, Portsmouth

We have teamed up with Aspex art gallery in Portsmouth and artist Abi Gilchrist for a creative investigation of Somerstown, the neighbourhood around Delta Arts’ studio.

Somerstown continues to be the subject of public regeneration schemes seeking to tackle deprivation on many fronts. While these interventions can have a transformative impact on the neighbourhood many people see unfortunate stigmatising side-effects.

We hope to avoid, or even address, some of these pitfalls with an informal approach of talking to neighbours individually, looking at Somerstown in the eyes of people who live and work there. Many residents do small things to make this a better place for local people, such as cooking, gardening, caring, and through social groups.

In our Grassroots-funded project, ‘A Welcome To Those Who Come’, we are talking to local volunteers who would like to challenge external perceptions of Somerstown by talking about their personal talents, passions and local knowledge.

Discussion: Golden Threads, Modern Art Oxford

Townley+Bradby, Golden Threads fellowship, Denmark, 2010

GOLDEN THREADS: BEIRUT, COPENHAGEN, LONDON

7 – 8.30 PM, THURSDAY 27 JANUARY 2011, MODERN ART OXFORD, 30 PEMBROKE STREET, OXFORD

Though increasingly familiar in the UK, what does it mean to be a socially engaged artist in another cultural context? Emma Smith and Oliver Sumner (of Delta Arts) unpack this and other questions addressed by our recent Golden Threads programme of artist research fellowships between London, Beirut and Copenhagen. We will be joined by artistic duo Townley and Bradby and artist/designer Samar Maakaron. Organised by Delta Arts in partnership with ARC.

Free, booking essential via MAO on 01865 813800. Event link:

http://www.modernartoxford.org.uk/whats-on/golden-threads-beirut-copenhagen-london/about/

Delta Arts in Delhi: Aane walon ka swagat / A welcome to those who come

Rural Transport Vehicle: CyberMohalla mobile studio, Delhi, October 2010

Delta Arts visited Delhi in October on a British Council-funded exchange as part of our project, Aane walon ka swagat / A welcome to those who come, thinking about urban regeneration and asking: how can people change perceptions of where they live?

Our partner in Delhi was Sarai, a coalition of practitioners and researchers, where we worked with their CyberMohalla project.

Emma Smith and Oliver Sumner joined CyberMohalla on an eight-day mobile workshop (by many forms of transport) to outer parts of Delhi, including resettlement colonies and neighbourhoods affected by displacement and other consequences of urban planning and rapid growth.

The workshop, in Hindi and English, included CyberMohalla collaborator and translator Shveta Sarda, and CM members Azra Tabassum, Jaanu Nagar, Lakhmi Chand Kohli, Rakesh Khairalia, Neelofar, Shamsher Ali, Babli Rai, Love Anand, Nasreen, and Rabiya Quraishy, all practitioners in their twenties living in neighbourhoods across the city, such as LNJP colony in Central Delhi, Dakshinpuri in South Delhi and Sawda-Ghevra, a new resettlement colony at the northern frontier of the city.

Trickster City, an excellent collection of writings by the group was recently published by Penguin. ‘This book chronicles the difficult period of loss of home and livelihood in the city through urban eviction, encounters with the agencies of the state, love stories gone awry, the fragility of relationships, and the sustained effort to build life in anticipation of beauty and pleasure’.

Golden Threads in Beirut

Workshop at 98weeks, Beirut

Delta Arts member Emma Smith has recently returned from a three-week fellowship in Beirut (27 September – 16 October 2010), completing the Golden Threads fellowships for 2010. Golden Threads is Delta Arts’ international fellowship program that ran this year between Lebanon, Denmark and the UK, supported by the Arts Council England and the Danish Arts Council.

During her fellowship in Beirut Emma was supported by 98weeks. Hosted by artist Marwa Arsanios and Mirene Arsanios who co-direct 98weeks Emma’s visit included a number of artist and organisational meetings, an artist talk, performance event, and three-day workshop.

Emma met with a number of Lebanese artists / practitioners including Hatem Imam (Golden Threads fellow to the UK 2010), Kiki Bokassa, Ghassan Maasri, Vartan Avakian, Elias Maalouf, Ghassan Salhab, Alfred Tarazi, Dalia Khamissy, Souad Abdallah, Eyad Houssami, Masour Aziz and Maxime Hourani.

Organisational visits included the Arab Image Foundation, Sfeir Semler gallery, Zico House, Sanayeh House and Studio, Ashkal Alwan, Zoukak and the Beirut Art Centre.

During her stay Emma ran a three-day workshop at 98weeks called ‘Art Services: Cultural Production and Public Use’. This peer-to-peer workshop explored self-organisation, how practice is valued, where it is located, the role of the artist in society and how practitioners can contribute to change.

She also gave an artist talk and hosted a reading group at 98weeks, and hosted a performative event at Sanayeh House in collaboration with artist Lawrence Abu Hamden.

Discussion: Hatem Imam, Turner Contemporary

Droit House, Margate

Thursday 16 September, 6.30 – 8.30pm

Droit House with Tracey Emin commission 'I never stopped loving you'. Turner Contemporary. Image: Sebastian Sharples

Lebanon-based artist and designer Hatem Imam leads a professional development discussion for practitioners. Where do artists situate educator roles within their practice? And how might this vary between the UK and Beirut? This event is organised in partnership with ARC and Turner Contemporary. Part of the Golden Threads fellowship programme organised by the collective Delta Arts in association with Gasworks, London.

Booking and information via http://www.turnercontemporary.org/

Golden Threads: Hatem Imam

Hatem Imam, 'Self-portrait in Beirut, December 2005'

Beirut-based artist Hatem Imam makes his UK research fellowship 28 August – 18 September 2010, as part of our Golden Threads programme.

Hosted by curator and educator Oliver Sumner (of Delta Arts), in association with Gasworks, he will be staying in Portsmouth and London.

Described in Bidoun magazine as ‘a shaggy-haired polymath’, Hatem Imam works in the fields of visual arts, design, theatre, event organisation, publishing, and education. His work considers the production of landscape in printed media and their relation to national identity. Hatem Imam currently teaches design at the American University of Beirut, he is a board member of the 98Weeks Research Project, and co-editor of Samandal comics magazine.

The focus of his visit will be to observe, negotiate and constructively critique the role of the artist within the context of education, in the UK and Lebanon. On being a contemporary artist in Beirut, he says, ‘There is no governmental art fund, barely any spaces for cultural production, and an ever-diminishing public space; our practice is constantly pushed to the margin of our daily production. This condition allows me a critical distance; it forces me to constantly re-question the validity of my work, and to situate it within a social and political context’.

Golden Threads is funded by Arts Council England.

Golden Threads in progress

Sølyst Artist in Residence Center (SAIR), Denmark

Danish artist Karen Land Hansen’s three-week Golden Threads visit to UK ends this weekend. She has had a packed itinerary of meetings and events, hosted by Oliver Sumner in London and Portsmouth. Meanwhile UK collaboration Townley+Bradby have arrived in Denmark for their Golden Threads fellowship hosted by Lars Mathisen in Copenhagen and at Solyst Artist in Residence Center. See their blog at http://www.goldenthreadsdenmark.wordpress.com

Documentation and dialogue will continue to appear on the Golden Threads ning site at http://goldenthreads.ning.com

Golden Threads: Karen Land Hansen, and Townley+Bradby

Townley+Bradby, Big red ball with drums, 2009

Delta Arts announces two Golden Threads artist professional development research fellowships between the UK and Denmark in June and July.

Denmark-based artist Karen Land Hansen travels to London and Portsmouth from 5-26 June, hosted by curator and educator Oliver Sumner (of Delta Arts) and in association with Gasworks, London.

UK collaborative practice Townley+Bradby travel to Copenhagen and Sølyst from 17 June-10 July, hosted by artist Lars Mathisen in association with Sølyst Artist in Residence Center in Denmark.

Two fellowships between the UK and Beirut, Lebanon are being planned later in the year in association with Gasworks and 98 weeks research project, Beirut.

Golden Threads is a series of international artist fellowships organised by Delta Arts. Four peer-to-peer fellowships will take place in 2010, focusing on opportunities to experience models of education or social practice in the partner countries. The three-week visits will be closely programmed with an itinerary of meetings and short placements arranged with each artist in advance of the fellowships. After the artists return home, follow-up events will take place in all three countries. The project will be documented online and in a publication.

Golden Threads is supported by Arts Council England and the Danish Arts Council. With advisory partnership from engage and ARC.

Animal Architecture at the Geffrye Museum, London

How would modern social architecture look if it was designed for different animal species? And what can we learn from the nests, hives and burrows of other social species? Can they help us redesign familiar built structures for community living?

At the Geffrye Museum Delta Arts is working with 20 young people aged 13-24, including architecture students from Central St Martins College of Art and Design. Over a series of sessions in May and June, with help from visiting guest naturalists and architects, we will design and construct a collaborative installation work for the museum garden.

Join us to celebrate the results on Saturday 19th June, 1-3.30pm, at the Geffrye Museum, 136 Kingsland Road, London E2 8EA.

March 2010: Doa Aly Visit: Visiting Arts’ Artist-to-Artist Scheme

Doa Aly, an artist based in Cairo, will be visiting Delta Arts from 8-21 March 2010, thanks to Visiting Arts’ Artist to Artist Scheme. We are planning some studio time and a short series of exploratory meetings and events in London, Portsmouth, and at Wysing Arts Centre near Cambridge.

Her moving image work, ’The Girl Splendid in Walking’ was premiered in 2009 at the 11th Istanbul Biennial in 2009 and is currently on show as part of her solo exhibitions of the same name at Darat Al-Funun in Amman and the Townhouse Gallery in Cairo. Doa Aly (b. 1976) obtained her BA in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo in 2001, and has since participated in many international group exhibitions.

Doa Aly is interested in society’s economy of role-play, the use of different types of behaviour and how these vary depending on different situations and contexts. The shift between the subjective and projected image, as well as the gestures of chosen and prescribed roles is her favourite artistic subject. The artist traces so-called ‘modern misfits’, individuals whose actions and constant struggle for identity lead to an ambiguous, yet productive state. Her video works tend to refer to fictional characters either created by the artist herself or found in literature (Albert Camus, Thomas Mann, Guy de Maupassant, Wilhelm Jensen and Ovid’s metamorphosis).

Supported by Visiting Arts: http://www.visitingarts.org.uk/our_work/artist_to_artist.html

23rd February 2010: Delta Arts receives Special Commendation by British Council

Delta Arts member Emma Smith received a Special Commendation at the British Council’s Visual Arts Entrepreneur Awards 2010. These awards follow on from Emma’s trip to India with the British Council in 2009 which will result in a number of new projects for Delta Arts in 2010.

12th February 2010: Delta Arts at National Network’s Annual Conference

Delta Arts took part in the Contemporary Art Society’s National Network’s Annual Conference: Residencies and Other Research Models held at Wysing Arts Centre. This event brought speakers together to discuss process driven models where practitioners are given time to develop their work from a specific context. Delta Arts contributed ideas from Golden Threads: our international fellowship scheme, to this dialogue.

30th January – 1st April 2010 Wysing Arts Centre

Delta Arts member Emma Smith is currently working on site at Wysing Arts Centre in their live/work studio. In addition to her solo projects Delta Arts will stage a number of events, open to artists in the East region, in the next two months.

29th November – 19th December YVAE Award British Council India Tour

Delta Arts Co-Director Emma Smith is currently on a visual arts tour in India with the British Council. As part of the selection process for the Young Visual Arts Entrepreneur Award, for which Emma has been shortlisted, the British Council are taking 5 candidates on an 11 day tour of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. The tour includes visits to galleries, meetings with artists and curators and a chance to network.  Visits so far have included the India Habitat Centre, National Gallery of Modern Art, Alliance Francaise, arts.i, The Stainless Gallery, India Art Summit and Kohj.

4th – 6th November 2009: Future Perfect engage International Conference

engage conference 09

Tour of Edgware Road Project, Serpentine Gallery

Delta Arts members Oliver Sumner and Emma Smith attended this year’s engage / enquire International Conference, held in East London, which looked to address some of the issues that cultural organisations, artists and residents encounter when commercial and social partners and local communities work together to realise new futures. Over the three days, speakers and delegates explored the role of cultural organisations, artists, art and education in regeneration. Delta Arts has created the following response:

27th September – 15th October 2009: Mauritian Arts Exchange

Delta Arts hosted Mauritian Cultural Promotor Gavin Poonoosamy on a three week visit to the UK. Gavin organises and supports music and arts events in Mauritius including the recent co-production of a new album by artist Damien Elisa. His trip to the UK included meetings with UK based music producers and artists as well as visits to a numbers of arts organisations including the Barbican, Sadlers Wells, Camden Arts Centre, the Geffrye Museum, National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Festival Hall and Aspex Gallery.

13th – 23rd September 2009: China 400

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Delta Arts member Emma Smith has been selected to attend a 10 day visit and exchange to China as part of the British Council’s Exchange of Future Leaders programme. Emma will be hosted by the All Chinese Youth Federation and will visit a wide range of cultural venues in Shanghai and Shaanxi province in central China.

6th September 2009: Cultura Allotment Show

2-4pm, Community Allotment, Milton Piece Allotment, Locksway Road, Milton, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO4 8LD

Cultura: Delta Arts’ Somerstown community growing project exhibits their produce and portable planting containers at this year’s Milton Piece Allotment Summer Show. Cultura members have been meeting regularly over the summer at Delta Arts studio to swap growing techniques and further customize their micro-plots.

Join us for a day of tasting and sharing!

Saturday 20th June 2009: Cultura

12-4pm, Community Allotment, Milton Piece Allotment, Locksway Road, Milton, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO4 8LD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Somerstown community growing project sets off with this allotment event to build and then customize wooden plant boxes into mobile micro-plots. The containers made from recycled wood can be adapted with a cornucopia of straps, handles and wheels, so you can cultivate your produce on the move. All are welcome to join the event, and donate straps and other accessories for the micro-plots. Somerstown residents are prioritised to take the planted plots home and get growing.

Cultura is supported by Portsmouth Community First and Portsmouth City Council.

9th June 2009: The Frog That Jumped Out of The Pan

12-4pm, Cheswoth Arts Farm, Chesworth Lane, Horsham, Sussex, RH13 0AA

 

 

 

 

 

 

How can artists lead social change for climate change? Invited artists, curators and ecologists will present artistic responses to climate change in a rotating platform around a shared meal. This event is organised in partnership with our hosts Chesworth Art Farm: an artist-led creative space in a converted barn amongst meadows, on the edge of Horsham.

This event is part of the RSA Arts and Ecology Centre’s Respond season.

6th June 2009: Wild Ideas Book Launch and Exhibition

2-4pm at Southampton City Art Gallery, Civic Centre, Commercial Road, Southampton, SO14 7LP

 

 

 

 

 

 

A celebration of Wild Ideas, our weekend residentials with young people over the last year, in partnership with Wessex Youth Offending Team. 

Join the people involved since September 2008, their friends and family, WYOT staff and Delta Arts members, to launch a book of resulting work and view a display of their achievements in the gallery. Refreshments will be provided and afterwards you are invited to bring a picnic to the park in front of the gallery.

Exhibition continues untill 20th July 2009.

Wild Ideas is supported by Awards For All, UnLtd. and Wessex Youth Offending Team.

13th February – 11th April 2009: Triangle Trust Fellowship to Mauritius

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Delta Arts Co-Director Emma Smith is currently working on a Triangle Trust Fellowship to pARTage in Mauritius where she is working alongside two Mauritian artists: Anjali Pyndiah and Ariana Cziffra. Emma is exploring sacred geographies by looking at the connection of specific land forms to human spiritual activity. Her particular interest is in the development of myth and the processes and importance of story telling. Throughout the residency Emma will be researching and taking part in specific religious festivals including Maha Shivatree – a Hindu pilgrimage from your place of residence to Ganga Taloa, a sacred lake in the centre of a volcano.

November 2008: Delta Arts Road Trip

 

 

 

 

 

 

In November 2008 Delta Arts members visited a series of arts organisations who run international artist residency programmes in rural locations, funded by an a-n Go-See Bursary. Our tour included Wysing Arts Centre, on a former farm in Cambridgeshire, Grizedale Arts above Conniston Water in Cumbria, and Cove Park on the west coast of Scotland. We met the directors of all three organisations and were interested to find out their different programmes, residencies, events and participatory projects. We found ‘rural’ to be a very contested term, but we found that all three organisations had made a serious cultural investment in their specific location and were testing new kinds of reltationships with artists and communities, both locally and internationally.